Bob Canada’s Moonmen™ Drink Mix

Bob Canada always does interesting illustrations. Right now his favorite of mine, by far, is his wonderful mockup of a a product that shoot have been … Moonmen™ Drink Mix. The idea struck his fancy because of his love for “Funny-Face” drink mix and shortly thereafter the art and an entire mythology was born.

Conceived by Morty Jooseman, Moonmen™ Drink Mixes were launched in 1968 at the height of the space race, but were never quite as successful as Funny Face. Kids loved the colorful space age characters, but they weren’t quite so keen on the actual drinks themselves. Jooseman had decided that the world already had enough drink mix flavors like raspberry and cherry, so he insisted on more unusual tastes (with the exception of grape, his favorite flavor).

Most likely it was this strange lineup of flavors that kept them from becoming more popular. 1960s America just wasn’t ready for “exotic” flavors like kiwi, kumquat and durian. Kids loved the characters, but that popularity unfortunately didn’t translate into sales, and by 1971 Moonmen™ disappeared from grocery shelves and faded from the public’s memory, until now.